A history of engineering and science in the Bell System
by Am Tel & Tel Bell Labs, AT & T Bell Laboratories. Technical Publication Dept. · first published 1984
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I had a delightful time reading "A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System".
on “The Tears of Donald Knuth” ↗"A History of Engineering & Science in the Bell System: Communications Sciences, 1925-1980". Here's probably the simplest introduction.[1] When reading this, note phrases like "ORIGINATING REGISTER SEIZES AN IDLE MARKER". Think of that as "originating register asks for an idle marker from the pool of markers". Very little equipment is dedicated to specific lines. Everything is done by requesting
on “911 emergency services go down across the US after CenturyLink outage” ↗The History Of Engineering and Science in the Bell System - The Early Years (1875-1925) The History Of Engineering and Science in the Bell System - National Service in War and Peace (1925-1975) The History Of Engineering and Science in the Bell System - Switching…
on “The SR-71's predecessor used cesium-laced fuel to create radar-absorbing exhaust” ↗If you're really into telephony history, the Internet Archive has "The History Of Engineering and Science in the Bell System" (3 volumes) online. If you have to build reliable distributed systems, it's worth understanding how this was done in the electromechanical era of telephony, where the component reliability was much…
on “Car allergic to vanilla ice cream” ↗Article's point is though that they shoveled useful and relevant problems at them. This is extremely clear if you spend some time reading the BSTJ or the phenomenal "The History Of Engineering and Science in the Bell System" books. So while there were not significant pressures to produce products there was a culture of working on relevant problems or in areas connected to relevant problems. ... rather than going full open-loop…
on “How did places like Bell Labs know how to ask the right questions? (2023)” ↗…field of astronomy, for example, on the assumption that the technical work will lead to useful engineering knowledge. There's a lot out there about the history of Bell Labs, but its own multi-volume "A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System," from the late '70s, does a good job of covering the incredible breadth and scale of work performed at Bell Labs. One thing to consider is that costs were quite a bit lower back then, and so Bell Labs…
on “Bell Labs Holmdel Complex” ↗…automated Maintenance Data System (MDS).” He did work on some slightly more interesting things, like documentation for a cable-laying ship, and he was proud of helping with the monumental book project “A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System”. But overall it was just a job for him, for several decades; he retired as soon as he could.
on “The Boring Part of Bell Labs” ↗